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USAID chief optimistic on Serbia-Kosovo talks, pledges support

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The United States’ top international development official on Friday said Washington is focusing on the urgency of normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia in EU-brokered talks between the two former war foes. USAID Administrator Samantha Power has been in Kosovo for the past two days, following a three-day visit to Serbia. As the most senior representative of U.S. President Joe Biden to visit Kosovo recently, she said her country’s focus now was on “the importance of implementation of the agreements that will produce a normalization that will be incredibly important for Kosovo and for Serbia.”Over the two days of her trip, Power visited a local farm and food processing facility. She met with young entrepreneurs at a hub for innovation and also spoke to young peacemakers bridging divides between Kosovo and Serbia.“Normalization is going to be really, really good for business,” she said at a news conference. “The good that normalization will do for...

GOP lawmaker: Former Trump prosecutor declined to provide details on hush-money investigation

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — An ex-prosecutor who once oversaw Manhattan’s yearslong investigation of former President Donald Trump repeatedly declined to substantively answer questions at a closed-door meeting Friday of the House Judiciary Committee, according to a Republican lawmaker in the meeting.Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, exited the meeting and said Mark Pomerantz, the former prosecutor, repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment that protects people from providing self-incriminating testimony.Pomerantz, who left Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office after disagreements over the direction of the case, was subpoenaed by the Republican-controlled House committee. The panel, chaired by GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, is probing how Bragg handled Trump’s historic indictment.Bragg had sued to halt Jordan’s subpoena of Pomerantz, but last month agreed to Pomerantz’s testify after a delay and a condition that lawyers from the prosecutor’s office b...

China orders recall of 1.1M Teslas to fix accelerator pedal problem that raises crash risk

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — Chinese safety regulators have ordered Tesla to recall 1.1 million vehicles because drivers might step on the accelerator for too long, increasing the risk of a crash.The State Administration for Market Regulation said in a notice Friday that the recall involves imported Model S, X and 3 models as well as the Chinese-made Models Y and 3. The models were produced between January 12, 2019 and April 24, 2023, but it wasn’t clear from the notice whether those dates applied only to the Chinese-made vehicles.The recall, which starts May 29, was triggered because drivers aren’t able to select the regenerative braking system and because of the lack of a warning when they press hard on the accelerator pedal, the watchdog said on its website.The combination of these issues “may increase the probability of mistakenly stepping on the accelerator pedal for a long time, which may increase the risk of collision and pose a safety hazard,” it said.Regenerative braking takes ener...

Carolina Hurricanes ride collective scoring into the East final of the NHL playoffs

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — It wasn’t long after the Carolina Hurricanes had closed out a second playoff opponent when defenseman Brent Burns began heaping praise on the team’s forwards for making it easy for the defensemen to jump into the offense.One of those forwards, Jesper Fast, sat to his right and couldn’t hold back. “Well,” Fast said, “you make it pretty easy for us as well.”The Hurricanes weren’t supposed to be able to do this: advancing in the playoffs after a series of injuries hit their forward group to sideline some of their most naturally talented goal-scorers. Yet the collective approach has worked so well that the Hurricanes are finding the net more frequently than they did in the regular season despite being down in bodies — and now has them in the Eastern Conference Final.“It’s really a five-man group,” Burns said after Thursday’s 3-2 overtime win in Game 5 to eliminate the New Jersey Devils. “We talk about that. On the nights things ar...

NBA Playoffs: Nuggets become 1st team to reach this year’s NBA final four

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

The Denver Nuggets are headed to the NBA’s Final Four.The top seed in the Western Conference became the first team to make it to the conference final round of these NBA playoffs, after ousting the Phoenix Suns 125-100 on Thursday night.It’s Denver’s first time in the conference finals since 2020, the bubble season. The Nuggets will meet either the Los Angeles Lakers or Golden State Warriors for the West title.Philadelphia could have gotten to the conference finals as well on Thursday, but dropped a Game 6 at home to Boston 95-86. Game 7 of that series is Sunday, in Boston.WHAT’S NEXT?Friday’s schedule has two Game 6 contests — New York at Miami (Heat lead 3-2) and Golden State at the Lakers (L.A. leads 3-2).There are no games Saturday. Game 7 of 76ers-Celtics is Sunday, and if a Game 7 is necessary for Warriors-Lakers, it’ll be Sunday as well. A Game 7 of Heat-Knicks would be Monday.HOW TO WATCH— Friday’s games are on ESPN.— The television schedul...

Colorado rain totals top 5 inches over 3-day period

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) -- Steady rain fell across much of the Denver area for nearly three days, causing flooding in some places.Denver set a record for total rainfall for May 11 with 2.92 inches, beating the previous record of 1.55 inches set in 2011. Hail up to 4 inches fell Wednesday in Colorado: See the list The average monthly rainfall for Denver in May is 2.16 inches. How much rain has fallen?Here is a look at the preliminary rainfall reports from the National Weather Service as of 10 a.m. Friday:Arapahoe Park: 6.52 inchesArvada: 4.03 inchesAurora: 6.44 inchesBailey: 2.03 inchesBellvue: 2.02 inchesBerthoud: 3.66 inchesBlack Forest: 3.18 inchesBoulder: 2.61 inchesBroomfield: 3.43 inchesCastlewood Canyon: 3.44 inchesCastle Pines: 4.68 inchesCastle Rock: 4.10 inchesCherry Creek Reservoir: 5.35 inchesColorado Springs: 3.58 inchesColumbine: 3.75 inchesDacono: 4.26 inchesElizabeth: 5.13 inchesEnglewood: 3.73 inchesErie: 3.83 inchesEvergreen: 2.61 inchesFirestone: 2.71 inchesFort Collins: 2...

Students evacuated from multiple Broward schools after bomb threat reported to police

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

Students at several South Florida school were evacuated due to a threat. Hollywood Police arrived at South Broward High School, located at 1901 N. Federal Highway, Friday morning. According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, a bomb threat was called in to law enforcement . Hollywood Police do not believe the threat is credible. Students were evacuated from the school to the campus baseball field as a precaution. Other schools that received similar bomb threats include the following: Coral Glades High SchoolAttucks Middle SchoolBlanche Ely High Schoolhttps://twitter.com/CoralSpringsPD/status/1657065002975600640An investigation is underway. Please check back on WSVN.com and 7News for more details on this developing story.

Musk confirms new Twitter CEO is NBC’s Linda Yaccarino, an executive with deep advertising roots

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

Elon Musk has confirmed that the new CEO for Twitter, or X Corp. as it’s now called, will be NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino, an executive with deep ties to the advertising industry.“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk wrote in a Friday tweet. He added that Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”Yaccarino has worked at NBCUniversal for nearly 12 years — with her team generating more than $100 billion in ad sales since 2011, her company bio notes. According to LinkedIn, Yaccarino previously served as NBC’s chair for advertising and client partnerships and as president of cable entertainment and digital advertising sales. Prior to her time with NBC, Yaccarino worked at global entertainment company Turner for almost two decades.Yaccarino interviewed Musk on a Miami stage last month in front of hundreds of advertisers.Luring advertisers is critical for Musk and Twitter ...

McDonald’s found liable for hot Chicken McNugget that burned girl in Tamarac

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — McDonald’s and a franchise holder are at fault after a hot Chicken McNugget from a Happy Meal fell on a little girl’s leg and caused second-degree burns, a jury in South Florida found in a case reminiscent of the famous hot coffee lawsuit of the 1990s.A second jury will determine how much McDonald’s USA and its franchise owner, Upchurch Foods, will pay the child and her mother, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.Thursday’s decision was split, with jurors finding the franchise holder liable for negligence and failure to warn customers about the risk of hot food, and McDonald’s USA liable for failing to provide instructions for safe handling of the food. McDonald’s USA was not found to be negligent, and the jury dismissed the argument that the product was defective.“Our sympathies go out to this family for what occurred in this unfortunate incident, as we hold customer safety as one of our highest priorities,” McDonald’s o...

Elon Musk names new Twitter CEO

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:51:07 GMT

Twitter CEO and owner Elon Musk is set to hand over the reins of Twitter, announcing he’s hired Linda Yaccarino to be the new CEO of the social media platform.In a tweet Friday, Musk said that Yaccarino, an outgoing NBCUniversal executive, “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”Musk had first tweeted that the new CEO would be a woman. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Yaccarino was the leading candidate. With his tweet, Musk followed through on statements from February, where he said he would find a new Twitter CEO “by the end of the year” after ensuring Twitter is “in a financially healthy place.” Musk’s upcoming departure also fulfills his promise to leave Twitter after he publicly lost a poll called, “Should I step down as head of Twitter?” in December 2022. About 10 million people voted “yes” in the poll.The South African-born billionai...